I was reminded of this in a discussion just now with students talking about Rosetta Mission results: ESA commissioned this very impressive short scifi film for publicizing the Rosetta Mission, and it's definitely the most awesome/confusing way I've ever seen to advertise a real space mission!
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2014/10/Ambition_the_film
@andrasgaspar @sundogplanets It’s an interesting question how well it works nine years on, with the context of the Rosetta mission long gone.
Yes, it’s bananas, but that’s partly the point: at the time, the reviews were amazing & everybody was stunned that we had done something like this. We even had a meeting with NASA at their request so they could try & learn from us. I enjoyed that immensely 😎
@andrasgaspar @sundogplanets I’m not sure I completely understand why.
It’s just using a sci-fi setting deep in the future to look back at Rosetta as a kind of “turning point” in understanding how water & perhaps life came to Earth. But it’s not too complicated beyond that.
Yes, unusual & attention-grabbing, but that’s part of the point of PR surely 🙂
And it was just one part of a much wider outreach campaign for the mission: all parts didn’t have to work for all people.
@sundogplanets @andrasgaspar To some extent, that’s exactly the point – to leave the viewer guessing who these people are & what they’re doing, to create an aura of mystery around the core topic of Rosetta.
We didn’t want to be obvious & literal, more that people would see the film as initial world building & as a kind of trailer for a broader film (which has never been made, but many which people have asked us to do 🙂).
@sundogplanets @andrasgaspar That said, our interpretation is that Aisling’s character is an apprentice, learning her trade (whatever it is exactly) from Aidan’s, & that this is some kind of final test before she graduates.
We revisited her character for emotional closure in the 2016 epilogue, where now a fully-fledged whatever, she looks back fondly at that Rosetta test:
@andrasgaspar @sundogplanets @Ruth_Mottram I can deliver on one of those at least: there is a full soundtrack album by the composer, Atanas Valkov 🙂
https://atanasvalkov.com/album/ambition-original-soundtrack/
Prof. Sam Lawler
Andras Gaspar
Mark McCaughrean
Chris Lee (he/him)
Ruth Mottram